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The circus is in town!

The IPL is back. For the next two months, many people around me will be fully hooked to their TV sets following the happenings. The IPL has really changed cricket in India completely. It is more entertainment than sport, really - the short matches, the whole carnival-like atmosphere, the involvement of Bollywood.

It doesn't work for me though!

For starters, I am one of the very few in our country who is not crazy about cricket. Its not that I hate it or something. Its just that I am not crazy about it. If there's an India-Pakistan match or a World Cup semi-final or final in which India is playing I will watch. But I am not one of those guys who will watch a replay of a West Indies-Australia match and get excited about the goings-on.

My father and brother are both big followers of cricket and the IPL. They even go to the stadium for a match or two during the season. They know the names of all the players. They know which match is on today and would be excited about it. For me, one of the problems about IPL is you start cheering for people you've been against all this while. It confuses the heck out of me. Ponting and Tendukar opening together? WTF? And people on Facebook had goosebumps! Double WTF!

The funniest part about this IPL for me was the TV coverage. Once a match was over, the folks at the studio would analyze the match like any other match. Which is fine. But every time they were about to show special features like some successful batsman's fours or sixes, the camera would pan to a group of scantily clad white girls who would jig to Bappi Lahiri's "Ooh la la" song from "Dirty Picture". This was totally hilarious!